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Updated: Dec 23, 2025
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Microarray-based Identification of Individual HERV Loci Expression: Application to Biomarker Discovery in Prostate Cancer
Published on: November 2, 2013
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Development and evaluation of the MiCheck test for aggressive prostate cancer
Neal D Shore1, Christopher M Pieczonka1, R Jonathan Henderson1
1CUSP LLC Research Consortium, Annandale, VA.
Urologic Oncology
|April 20, 2020
Summary
A new blood test, MiCheck, accurately identifies aggressive prostate cancer (AgCaP) and can help avoid unnecessary biopsies. This test outperforms existing markers like PSA, improving patient decision-making for AgCaP diagnosis.
Area of Science:
- Oncology
- Biomarker Discovery
- Prostate Cancer Diagnostics
Background:
- A need exists for accurate biomarkers to distinguish aggressive prostate cancer (AgCaP) from indolent forms.
- This distinction is crucial for guiding treatment decisions and avoiding unnecessary prostate biopsies.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop a novel blood test, MiCheck, for detecting AgCaP.
- To compare the diagnostic performance of MiCheck against established markers: PSA, %free PSA, proPSA, and Prostate Health Index (PHI).
Main Methods:
- Utilized patient samples from the MiCheck-01 trial for test development.
- Measured serum growth factors using a Luminex-based assay.
- Employed Bayesian model averaging, random forest, and logistic regression with cross-validation to identify key differentiating variables.
Main Results:
- The MiCheck logistic regression model, incorporating PSA, age, DRE, Leptin, IL-7, VEGF, and Glypican-1, achieved an AUC of 0.83 for differentiating AgCaP (GS ≥3+4) from non-AgCaP (GS 3+3).
- MiCheck demonstrated superior performance compared to PSA, %free PSA, and PHI across all PSA ranges.
- Application of the MiCheck test suggested that up to 30% of biopsies could be avoided, with minimal risk of delayed diagnosis for high-grade cancers.
Conclusions:
- The MiCheck test significantly outperforms current biomarkers in differentiating AgCaP from non-AgCaP.
- MiCheck has the potential to reduce the number of invasive prostate biopsies performed, thereby improving patient management and reducing healthcare costs.
